Unfortunately, our system in the UK does indeed have many failings, the most significant is the lack of a formal ops accreditation such as the ICAO 7192 D3 licence. There is a sound reason behind the ICAO recommendation that flight dispatchers/flight operations officer should be trained/licensed and it is the UK who have fallen way behind in this regard.
Our system may not be broken but it is most certainly weak, particularly when held up against the US FAR system and other European countries where training of ops staff is to a high standard and equivalent to aircrew. Although, I actually do believe the FAA system to be superior to our approach, I tend to agree with Opssys that it is not necessary to move towards such a system in Europe.
The debate about joint dispatcher/commander responsibility is actually a separate one from the core issue of having a system of training and accreditation that ensures those who have an influence on flight safety are adequately trained for their role. Ops Officers most certainly have, at times, influence over decisions a commander may make. That of course is not to say that the commander is not the one in sole command of the aircraft, he is of course. But, and it is a significant but; where an individual is providing a flight crew member with information that may be the basis for a decision which may affect the safety of flight then that person must be trained adequately, and in my view that training should be to a standard equivalent to the aircrew. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever, that UK ops officers do influence flight safety in their day to day job.
Although, I don't wish to drag up the earlier discussion CM and Aloon had; but historically, in the UK the greatest impediment to ops officers obtaining adequate training has ironically been from pilot managers and the CAA who have had doubts over the issue of joint responsibility and concern that their command authority would somehow be diluted by moving towards the US FAR style flight release system- that was actually never the case nor the core issue. ICAO (not the FAA) spelled the requirement out 40 years or so ago in doc. 7192 D3.
Chesty M (hope you're still with us here) as our pilot representative, I hope you'd agree that we would have a better (and safer) system in Europe (UK) were every ops officer you deal with on a day to day basis properly trained, as you were when you did your ATPL studies. Wouldn't you feel more comfortable with the knowledge that your ops colleagues have a formal ops accreditation and a section in Part D of the ops manual detailing their initial and recurrent training and competence requirements? Just as you probably do knowing that cabin crew and engineers have had to demonstrate their knowledge and competence in their respective roles.
Pierre 1, where it sounds like your outfit had high standards sadly it is not universally the case. Experience should be build upon a sound foundation of knowledge and theory. Many believe that a few years on the ops desk is all that is required- that is simply not case.
And, again I am in complete accord with Opssys regarding ramp dispatch training, another area for another debate.